The invention relates to portable carports and the like which provide temporary shelters for automobiles, and particularly to portable carports of the type that do not require the tires of the vehicle to be driven onto a platform that anchors the device.
A variety of portable, temporary shelters or covers for automobiles are known, as protection of the interior of the automobile and also its painted surface from the elements, especially the hot sun. Some of the known devices, such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,463,174, are elaborate, complex, and far too bulky to be kept in the trunk of the automobile and conveniently erected where needed to temporarily protect the automobile. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,063,583 and 2,798,501 disclose collapsible, portable covers for automobiles that nclude a base on which the front wheels of the vehicle are driven; the base anchors an accordion-like frame about which a fabric cover unfolds in much the same fashion as an automobile convertible top unfolds from its retracted configuration. The devices of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,063,583 and 2,798,501 also are too complex and bulky to be considered truly portable and are impractical for a person who desires an inexpensive, completely portable, easily erected cover for his automobile.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,115, British Pat. No. 875,992, and Dutch Pat. No. 147,957 disclose portable shelters or awnings which are quite simple in structure, but suffer from the shortcoming that they all include platforms onto which the vehicle must be driven in order to stabilize a frame structure over which a cloth cover or awning is stretched. It would be very desirable to have a device that can be completely installed without moving the car in order to anchor the device. Another shortcoming of the simple structure shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,115, British Pat. No. 875,992 and Dutch Pat. No. 147,957 is that none of them provide adequate bracing in the directions transverse to the direction of travel of the automobile. Therefore, strong winds in the transverse direction could cause bending of the frame members that support the fabric cover.
Another shortcoming of many of the prior temporary car shelter structures is that they provide no degree of adjustability of the height and/or slope of the fabric cover, so the covers will have a tendency to form sagging pockets in which rainwater can collect.